Town of Wallkill takes mall connector road issue to state DOT

TOWN OF WALLKILL — Attention holiday shoppers: You're still going to have to go through seven stoplights to get from Dunning Farms or Orange Plaza to the Galleria this season.

BY NATHAN BROWN

TOWN OF WALLKILL — Attention holiday shoppers: You're still going to have to go through seven stoplights to get from Dunning Farms or Orange Plaza to the Galleria this season.

Town officials plan to meet Tuesday with the state Department of Transportation to see if the state would take over sponsorship of the delayed road to connect the two shopping areas, said Supervisor Dan Depew.

The Route 17 overpass that it would go under was built in 2009, but the road's construction has been held up by funding delays and snarls in acquiring the land it would occupy. The connection likely won't be made this year.

Several companies own the land from Dunning Road to the Galleria, and there's a private road by Dunning Farms almost up to the overpass already.

The federal government has said the town needs to own the road. Local officials pushed last spring to be allowed to lease the land instead, which one of the landowners said they would prefer, but the feds rejected the idea.

Depew plans to argue it is in the state's interest to take over the road as project manager and expedite, since it will relieve congestion on state Route 211. If the state declines, town officials will decide whether to work within the existing process, or forgo federal money and try to negotiate leases with the landowners.

The town would then build a scaled-down version of the project, connecting the two shopping centers but perhaps without the sidewalks, rotary and some intersection improvements.

The land acquisitions and road construction were expected to cost about $4 million; as it stands, the federal government would cover 80 percent. The state had previously said it would cover 15 percent, leaving a 5 percent town share; however, state officials told the town earlier this year they weren't sure whether the state would cover that share.

Depew said the town can't cover the whole nonfederal share. And he's frustrated with the federal rules that make the land acquisition more difficult.

"I believe that if we can sit down (and) negotiate directly with the property owners, we can open quicker than bureaucratic regulations would allow," he said.